For Sasha Kaun, the 6-foot-11, 245-pound center from Melbourne, Fla., the time is now. During his two year career at Kansas, Kaun has averaged 8.2-points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, but if the top five ranked Jayhawks hope to contend for a National Championship, Kaun will certainly have to take his game to another level. Jayhawk Slant caught up with the talented big man inside the Cox Convention Center during Big 12 media day.

"The team is great and practice is coming along really well," said Kaun. "There haven't been that many practices, but if you take the first practice and the last practice that we had, I think it's a great improvement. There has been great improvement with how the practices go, how hard the guys play and how well we play together."

With C.J. Giles out of the mix for the time being, Kaun, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Julian Wright will be forced to carry the load in the low post area.

It's believed that Wright will expand his game to the perimeter which leaves Bill Self with just three low post players. Because of his size and strength, Kaun has the ability to become a real force in the paint area, but its something he's been unable to do on a consistent basis.

There is absolutely no doubt that Arthur, the 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward from Dallas, Texas, is going to be a special player at the collegiate level, but he's still young and inexperienced.